LIBRARY 

OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 

©IFT    OF 


SECRET 
OF  LIFE 
DEATH  AND 
IMMORTALITY 


The  above  is  a  reproduction  of  a  photograph  of 
an  electric  spark,  showing  the  Negative  and  Positive. 
The  white  represents  the  negative,  the  lines  show  the 
positive,  the  view  on  the  top  showing  the  strongest 
positive  effect. 


OF   THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 


The  Secret 

of  Life,  Death 

and  Immortality 


A  Startling  Proposition,  With 
a  Chapter  Devoted  to  Mental 
Therapeutics  and  Instructions 
for  Self  Healing  -:-  -:- 


By 

HENRY   FLEETWOOD 

Author  of 
"MUSIC  AS  A  CURE" 


Published  by  Henry  Fleetwood 

Los  Angeles 

1909 


Copyrighted    by 

HENRY  FLEETWOOD 

Dec.  3.  1908 


193431 


OF  THE 

I   UNIVERSITY 

OF 


DEATH  AND  IMMORTALITY 

TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  I 
Life 

Cosmic  Evolution;  Life  Germs — how  pro- 
duced; "The  Word"— evolution  of;  Universal 
Vibration — the  only  Immortality;  Continuous 
Evolution — the  condition  of  creation. 

CHAPTER  II 
Electricity  and  Life 

Proof  that  Electricity  is  Life ;  recent  discov- 
eries in  the  wireless  telegraph  and  telephone, 
telepathy,  etc,— how  they  effect  the  human 
race;  other  possibilities  of  Electricity. 

CHAPTER  III 
Love  and  Music 

Their  relation  to  Life;  their  effect  on  crea- 
tion; the  power  of  love;  the  power  of  music; 
all  emotion  subject  to  these  powers. 

CHAPTER  IV 

Immortality 

There  cannot  be  conscious  immortality; 
what  is  immortality?;  why  we  hope  for  con- 
sciousness in  a  future  life;  how  the  ancients 
regarded  a  future  life. 


6  THE  SECRET  OF  LIFE, 

CHAPTER  V 
The  Sun 

Its  relation  to  life ;  what  is  radiant  energy  ? ; 
why  the  ancients  worshipped  the  sun;  the 
Parsees  the  present  sun  v/orshippers. 

CHAPTER  VI 
Fear 

The  great  curse  of  the  Universe — the  only 
devil — its  insidious  claims — its  effect  on  life. 

CHAPTTER  VII 
Death 

Its  relation  to  Life;  the  only  Immortal;  its 
loving  purpose;  its  relation  to  evolution. 

CHAPTER  VIII 
Healing 

Mental  Therapeutics,  or  healing  sugges- 
tions; Christian  Science;  Faith  healing,  etc. 

CHAPTER  IX 
Resume  and  Conclusion. 


THE 

I  UNIVERSITY 

OF 


DEATH  AND  IMMORTALITY 

PREFACE 


The  writer  of  these  pages  a  few  years  ago 
invented,  patented  and  successfully  demon- 
strated in  the  city  of  Los  Angeles,  California, 
a  mechanical  device  by  which  he  transformed 
musical  vibrations  into  "electrical"  waves. 
These  when  conveyed  to  the  human  organism 
were  found  to  be  harmonizing,  vitalizing,  and 
curative,  in  many  nervous  and  functional  dis- 
orders. Further  study  and  research  along 
these  lines  convinced  him  that  all  vibration, 
or  motion,  or  activity  is  electrical.  That  all 
phenomena  are  electrical  phenomena.  In  fact, 
that  there  is  but  one  substance  in  the  universe, 
and  that  is — Electricity. 

Without  any  attempt  to  enter  the  realm  of 
metaphysics,  the  writer  desires  to  state  that 
he  uses  the  term  Life  in  its  absolute  or  uni- 
versal sense,  and  not  in  the  conditioned  or  lim- 
ited sense  in  which  it  is  ordinarily  and  loosely 
used.  He  distinguishes  between  Life — with 
its  eternal,  inherent  unceasing  impulse  and 
energy — and  the  resultant  of  that  impulse  and 
energy;  whether  that  resultant  be  a  molecule 
of  hydrogen  or  what  is  called  consciousness, 
intelligence,  manifesting  through  an  organism 
called  man. 

This  Life  is  not  mind,  nor  its  product  mat- 
ter. It  is  Substance*— and  that  substance  the 


8  THE  SECRET  OF  LIFE, 

writer  calls  electricity.  It  is  eternal.  It  is 
the  totality  of  what  is,  or  Be-ing.  It  has  a 
dual  impulse  or  tendency,  viz.  (the  positive 
and  negative)— attraction  and  repulsion  of  its 
infinite  integral  constituent  particles  or 
ELECTRONS.  This  attraction  and  repul- 
sion, this  breaking  and  closing  of  the  circuit, 
this  vibration  or  motion — always  in  a  straight 
line  or  a  circle — this  infinite  eternal  polarity, 
being  continuous  creation  or  evolution,  and 
destruction  or  devolution. 

It  has  not  been  possible  in  the  limited  space 
devoted  to  this  book  to  attempt  a  discussion 
and  proof  of  the  statements  made  herein. 
While  the  statements  made  are  scientific  and 
rational  the  writer  could  not  do  more  than 
point  out  through  them  the  direction  in  which 
the  truth  is  to  be  sought  and  found. 

The  reader  will  find  many  thoughts  sug- 
gested along  the  line  of  the  wireless  telegraph 
and  telephone,  musical  vibrations,  thought  vi- 
brations, telepathy,  clairvoyance,  "Spiritual- 
istic phenomena,"  death,  post-mortem  con- 
sciousness or  "Conscious  immortality/'  etc. 

We  are  living  in  an  age  of  scientific  investi- 
gation and  inquiry.  The  human  mind  is 
awakening  to  the  necessity  of  doing  its  own 
thinking  instead  of  being  bound  by  the  many 
dogmas  of  religious  systems. 

Laden  with  ability  to  annihilate  superstition, 
and  forever  destroy  that  curse  of  humanity— 


DEATH  AND  IMMORTALITY  9 

Fear — in  all  who  will  carefully  and  with  an 
open  mind  read  them,  these  pages  are  set 
adrift. 

HENRY  FLEETWOOD, 

Los  Angeles,  California. 
September,  1908. 


10  THE  SECRET  OF  LIFE, 

CHAPTER  I 
Life 

Cosmic  Evolution.  Life  Germs— How  Pro- 
duced. "The  Word"— Evolution  of. 
Thought  Vibration  the  Only  Immortality. 
"Life"  and  "Death"  Evolved  from  the  Same 
Cosmic  Substance. 

"But  words  are  things,  and  a  small  drop  of 
ink  falling  like  dew  upon  a  thought,  produces 
that  which  makes  thousands,  perhaps  millions, 
think." — Byron. 

Electricity  is  the  one,  eternal,  unchangeable, 
indestructible,  universal  substance. 

The  universe  is  made  up  of  innumerable 
"corpuscles,"  from  whose  manifold  combina- 
tions, ruled  by  unalterable  affinities,  has  been 
evolved  our  solar  system. 

Our  earth  after  the  cooling  process,  became 
through  the  light  and  radiant  energy  of  the 
sun,  the  theater  of  the  evolution  of  the  various 
forms  of  life.  The  eternal,  inherent,  restless 
energy  that  had  formed  and  launched  into  ex- 
istence this  solar  system  continued  its  work 
to  evolve  conscious  life  on  this  earth.  Monad, 
atom,  protoplasm,  molecule  and  cell  all  being 
produced  by  this  electric  energy  we  call  life. 

This  universal  substance  is  constituted  of 
electrons — infinitesimally  smaller  than  atomic 


DEATH  AND  IMMORTALITY  11 

dust — each  electron  having  the  potentiality  of 
the  whole,  with  its  positive  and  negative  im- 
pulse. 

It  is  well  known  that  each  molecule  is  a 
separate  and  distinct  organism,  formed  by  this 
same  electric  impulse.  The  active  force  in 
evolution  being  the  electric  energy — attraction 
and  repulsion — its  movements  can  be  easily 
followed  by  noting  the  similarity  of  its  forma- 
tion, namely,  circular  or  spherical.  The  ten- 
dency of  this  electric  energy  is  always  to  form 
a  complete  circuit — and  must  do  so  in  order  to 
evolve  and  carry  on  its  work  of  evolution;  all 
creation  being  the  result  of  the  breaking  and 
closing  of  the  circuit.  The  various  forms  of 
life  evolved,  are  subject  to  this  same  restless 
impulse — positive  and  negative — which  con- 
tinues the  work  of  creation  or  evolution. 

As  what  is  called  "life"  is  the  result  of  the 
closing  of  the  circuit,  so  what  is  called  "death" 
is  the  result  of  the  breaking  of  the  circuit. 
Thus  we  see  that  life  and  death  are  one  and 
the  same  process.  Simply  the  readjustment, 
rearrangement  of  these  infinite  electrons  by  the 
opening  and  closing  of  the  electric  circuit. 
The  same  eternal,  inherent,  restless  energy  for- 
ever at  play — creating  life,  and  creating  death 
—both  equally  beautiful.  This  is  the  contin- 
uous evolution  of  Darwin  and  others.  There 
is  no  rest.  There  is  only  eternal  continu- 
ous vibration.  Prof.  Loeb  says,  "The  force 


12  THE  SECRET  OF  LIFE, 

that  makes  life  possible  is  primarily  the  elec- 
tric charge."  Dr.  Samuel  Wallian  says,  "Life 
originates  in  vibration  and  consists  of  an  inces- 
sant repetition  of  vibrations."  It  can  with  equal 
truth  be  said  that  THE  FORCE  THAT 
MAKES  DEATH  POSSIBLE  IS  PRIMAR- 
ILY THE  ELECTRIC  CHARGE;  AND 
DEATH  ORIGINATES  IN  VIBRATION, 
AND  CONSISTS  OF  AN  INCESSANT 
REPETITION  OF  VIBRATIONS— or  open- 
ing and  closing  of  an  electric  circuit.  These 
are  the  only  Two  IMMORTALS— Life  and 
Death. 

Primitive  man  having  his  habitation  mainly 
in  the  primeval  forest,  the  shadows  cast  by  the 
sun  became  objects  of  terror  to  him.  The 
caves  with  their  mysteries  begot  gnomes  and 
hobgoblins.  Thus  was  born  that  great  curse 
of  humanity — Fear.  Feeling  the  need  of  pro- 
tection from  these  bogies  of  his  imagination, 
he  peopled  his  world  with  fairies,  etc.,  that 
would  help  him  to  overcome  the  evil  of  these 
fancied  cave  and  forest  shadow-folk.  Here 
we  have  the  origin  of  good  and  evil,  rewards 
and  punishments,  out  of  which  has  been 
evolved  the  various  systems  of  religion.  Ob- 
serving the  various  phenomena  of  this  uni- 
versal force,  he  called  it  God ;  made  images  to 
express  his  ideas  and  worshipped  them. 
Man's  evolution  in  the  universe  of  thought 


DEATH  AND  IMMORTALITY  13 

has  been  slow,  handicapped  as  he  has  been 
by  superstition,  traditional  folk-lore  and  lack 
of  individual  search  for  truth.  But  now  for  the 
past  fifty  years  there  has  prevailed  a  set  of 
thought  vibrations — a  so-called  "New 
Thought"  wave — that  has  impelled  to  a  desire 
for  the  truth  that  shall  make  one  free. 

There  is  no  mystery  in  nature.  She  works 
under  the  immutable  laws  of  her  eternal  being 
— Electricity.  When  primitive  man  evolved 
on  this  earth  he  was  at  first  without  speech, 
his  only  language  being  guttural  sounds  and 
gestures,  some  of  which  are  distinctly  discern- 
ible in  many  of  the  present  races  of  mankind. 
From  these  guttural  sounds  speech  was 
evolved  and  the  "word"  was  born.  "In  the 
beginning  was  the  word  and  the  word  was 
with  God  and  the  word  was  God." 

The  brain  cells  of  man — the  ego — the  be- 
ginning or  birth  of  understanding — sent  forth 
vibrations  called  "thought"  into  the  universe; 
and  man  has  been  adding  to  their  volume  dur- 
ing countless  ages.  As  he  progressed  he 
learned  to  write  by  signs  or  hieroglyphics,  thus 
recording  his  thoughts.  By  still  further  evo- 
lution he  constructed  an  alphabet  and  finally  a 
printing  press,  so  that  now  thoughts  can  be 
easily  recorded  and  preserved. 

Sir  Humphrey  Davy  immediately  upon  re- 
covering from  apparent  death,  caused  by  one 
of  his  scientific  experiments,  exclaimed,  "I  am 


14  THE  SECRET  OF  LIFE, 

convinced  that  thought  is  all  there  is  in  the 
universe." 

As  all  man's  thoughts, — the  vibrations  of  his 
brain  cells — are  contained  in  the  universe, 
there  must  be  reservoirs  of  thought  governed 
by  the  law  of  natural  selection. 

This  accounts  for  what  we  call  genius.  For 
example,  a  child  is  born  showing  early  a 
genius  for  music,  which  enables  it  to  grow  in 
the  art  until  it  becomes  famous.  What  is  the 
explanation?  Simply  that  during  the  period 
of  gestation  the  mother  was  environed  by  mu- 
sical vibrations,  so  attuning  the  brain  cells  of 
the  child  that  communication  was  established 
with  some  great  reservoir  of  musical  thought 
in  the  universe,  and  a  genius  was  evolved. 
This  is  the  so-called  "Reincarnation."  A  per- 
fectly natural  law  of  vibration. 

Creation,  we  repeat,  is  but  continuous  evo- 
lution, bringing  forth  by  natural  selection,-- 
"everything  after  its  kind" — progressing  on- 
ward year  by  year,  developing  more  improved 
species  and  greater  inventions.  Evolution  is 
but  continuous  creation.  They  are  one,  even 
as  life  and  death  are  one. 

Lucretius  wrote  fifty  years  B.  C.,  "Change 
is  the  law  of  things  and  is  brought  about  by 
opposing  forces."  Lucretius  did  not  know  that 
these  opposing  forces  were  but  the  attraction 
and  repulsion,  or  positive  and  negative  action 
of  the  one  universal  substance, — Electricity. 


DEATH  AND  IMMORTALITY  15 

The  inherent  eternal  impulse  (polarity,  or  sex) 
of  the  electrons  composing  the  universal  sub- 
stance from  which  all  things  are  evolved. 
Many  of  the  great  scientific  writers,  such  as 
Kant,  Darwin,  Wallace,  Hume,  etc.,  had  not 
seen  this  great  light  which  the  discovery  and 
investigation  of  certain  electrical  phenomena 
has  revealed  and  so  could  not  account  for  this 
primal  force  in  the  universe,  which  they  knew 
existed  but  could  not  define. 

Electricity  is  Life,  and  cosmic  evolution  is 
but  the  law  of  vibration  of  its  eternal,  universal 
being. 

All  formations  of  worlds,  planets,  suns,  stars, 
asteroids,  etc.,  were  rotated  into  form  and 
position  and  continue  their  movements  by  this 
same  universal  law  of  vibration — the  inherent, 
eternal  impulse  and  energy  of  the  one  only 
substance— Electricity.  Millions  of  ages  have 
been  evolved  in  the  cosmos.  All  are  subject 
to  what  is  called  decay  or  death,  but,  as  Lu- 
cretius says,  "What  is  will  perish,  but  only  to 
appear  in  another  form." 

All  formations  of  nature  in  the  universe  are 
circular  or  spherical,  thus  proving  their  elec- 
tric source  or  origin,  and  are  but  the  com- 
pletion of  an  electric  circuit.  Every  stone, 
grain  of  sand  and  drop  of  water  is  rotated  and 
rounded  by  this  same  electric  vibratory  im- 
pulse. What  is  true  of  our  solar  system,  we 
may  by  deduction  conclude  is  true  of  other 


16  THE  SECRET  OF  LIFE, 

systems,  which  may  have  gone  through  evo- 
lution and  devolution  many  times  in  the  count- 
less aeons  of  the  so  called  "past."  Combus- 
tion, radiant  energy,  what  are  these  but  modes 
of  motion?  A  living,  breathing,  thinking  or- 
ganism called  man,  or  an  expiring  puppy  on 
the  sidewalk,  are  but  different  modes  of  vi- 
bration of  this  one  universal  substance.  From 
worlds  to  atoms,  from  atoms  to  monads,  from 
monads  to  motion, — and  we  find  the  universe 
held  in  a  solution  of  omnipotent,  electric  en- 
ergy, just  as  salt  is  held  in  solution  in  the 
ocean.  Well  may  we  repeat  the  modern  para- 
phrase— 

Praise  law  from  whom  all  blessings  flow, 
Praise  protoplasm  here  below, 

Praise  matter,  evolution  tossed, 
Praise  force,  the  only  Holy  Ghost. 


DEATH  AND  IMMORTALITY  17 

CHAPTER  II 
Electricty  and  Life 

Proof  That  Electricity  Is  Life.  Recent  Dis- 
coveries in  the  Wireless  Telegraph  and 
Telephone.  Their  Effect  on  the  Thought 
of  the  Race.  Other  Possibilities  of  Elec- 
tricity. 

Our  little  lives  are  kept  in  equipose, 
By  opposite  attractions  and  desires. 
—Longfellow. 

Recent  discoveries  in  what  is  called  elec- 
trical science,  demonstrating  the  wide  range  of 
application  of  electric  vibrations  and  suggest- 
ing almost  unlimited  possibilities  as  to  its 
future  adaptation  to  the  purposes  of  man- 
kind, indicate  that  man  has  at  last  harnessed 
the  primary  force  or  energy  of  the  universe  to 
become  his  willing  servant.  With  the  discov- 
ery of  the  wireless  telegraph,  and  wireless  tele- 
phone^— by  means  of  which  conversation  has 
been  carried  on  at  a  distance  of  four  hundred 
miles — the  scientific  nature  and  possibilities  of 
telepathy  is  understood.  The  principle  is  the 
same.  In  the  wireless  telephone  by  means  of 
two  instruments  attuned  to  the  same  rate  of 
vibration  two  persons  widely  separated  are 
enabled  to  hear  each  other's  words.  In  telep- 
athy two  persons  whose  brain  cells  are  attuned 
to  the  same  rate  of  vibration  are  enabled  to 


18  THE  SECRET  OF  LIFE, 

sense  each  others  thoughts,  at  any  distance. 

This  is  the  explanation  of  impressions  of 
impending  disaster  and  death.  The  so-called 
psychic  forces  are  perfectly  natural  and  there 
is  nothing  supernatural  in  the  universe. 

A  knowledge  of  the  laws  of  electrical  vibra- 
tion is  the  key  that  will  unlock  all  the  secrets 
of  the  universe  to  man. 

All  motion, — electrical  vibration — is  the  real 
Book  of  Life,  opened  ever  to  the  true  student 
of  science.  Burbank  by  the  study  of  this  book 
of  nature  has  discovered  the  law  of  various 
polarities  or  affinities  (natural  selection)  of 
vegetables,  fruits  and  flowers  and  has  caused 
them  to  produce  new  varieties,  improving  the 
species. 

What  is  called  intelligent  purpose  is  said  to 
be  manifested  by  man  in  this  ability  to  direct 
and  assist  what  is  called  nature  to  bring  about 
different  and  "better"  (?)  conditions.  Left  to 
herself  nature  produces  chaotic  conditions; 
weeds,  brambles,  briars  and  trees  crowding 
themselves  into  various  fantastic  shapes. 
Lack  of  intelligent  PURPOSE  is  shown  in  all 
this  and  only  the  "intelligent  purpose"  dis- 
played by  man  produces  order  out  of  chaos. 
Where  then  is  the  intelligent  purpose  of  the 
universe?  Certain  vibrations  in  the  universe 
cause  floods,  tornadoes,  cyclones,  earthquakes, 
etc.  These  are  simply  results  of  natural  laws 
of  electric  energy  which  in  sport,  as  it  were, 


DEATH  AND  IMMORTALITY  19 

like  a  child  with  his  blocks,  builds  and  pulls 
down,  builds  and  pulls  down,  "creates  and  de- 
stroys" ad  infinitum.  Attraction  and  repul- 
sion, positive  and  negative  electric  action — 
vibration — generates,  sustains  and  destroys  all 
the  manifold  forms,  organic  and  inorganic,  of 
what  is  called  life  and  death.  There  is  no 
death.  Death  is  but  a  name  given  to  one  of 
the  many  forms  manifested  by  life.  A  knowl- 
edge of  the  dual  nature  of  electrical  impulse  is 
the  true  and  only  "secret"  of  life  and  death. 

In  the  organic  form  or  entity  called  man 
there  has  been  evolved  an  organ  called  the 
brain;  an  arrangement  of  cells  whose  vibra- 
tory action  enables  them  to  receive  and  give 
off  vibrations  called  thought — intelligence. 
The  universe  transmits  these  vibrations 
through  the  entity  attuned  to  receive  them.  Or, 
to  speak  poetically,  we  say,  the  universe 
"voices  its  intelligence  through  man."  And  man 
voices  his  intelligence  through  the  universe. 
Man  thus  becomes  a  Lord — a  God — and  has 
dominion. 

If  we  accept  electricity  as  the  only  substance 
and  vibration  as  the  vital  force  and  origin  of 
all  existence,  it  is  impossible  to  imagine  what 
may  yet  be  revealed  to  us  respecting  the  struc- 
ture of  the  universe. 

If  electricity  is  all  there  is,  then  thought  must 
be  electrical.  The  vibrations  being  received 
by  the  brain  cells,  are  conveyed  throughout 


20  THE  SECRET  OF  LIFE, 

the  body.  Light  vibrations  strike  upon  the 
eye  and  enter  the  brain  and  we  see  by  the 
brain.  Sound  waves  enter  the  brain  by  the 
ear  and  we  hear  by  the  brain.  Various  vibra- 
tions received  by  the  brain  are  transmitted 
through  the  nerves  to  the  various  organs  of 
the  body.  They  respond  to  these  vibrations 
and  harmony,  health  or  disease,  results. 

If  the  brain  is  attuned  to  receive  healthful 
vibrations,  the  body  will  surely  respond  and 
harmony  or  health  obtain.  This  is  the  secret 
of  mental  healing  in  all  its  forms  that  is  being 
practiced  in  these  states  today,  whether  it  be 
Mental  Science,  Christian  Science,  New 
Thought,  Divine  Healing,  Suggestive  Thera- 
peutics, or  whatever;  and  reduces  every  one 
of  these  various  systems  of  healing  to  a  simple 
natural  law  of  vibration.  These  healthful  vi- 
brations are  as  free  to  all  as  the  air  they 
breathe  and  cannot  be  cornered  by  any  set  of 
so-called  "healers"  in  the  world.  The  result 
of  so-called  evil  or  malefic  vibrations  we  see 
every  day  in  our  hospitals,  asylums,  jails,  po- 
lice courts,  etc.  The  reading  of  certain  books 
and  daily  newspapers  attunes  the  brain  to  re- 
ceive a  certain  kind  of  vibration  and  the  results 
usually  lead  to  the  reform  school  and  State 
prison..  What  are  called  evil  thought  vibra- 
tions are  as  abounding  in  the  universe  as  good 
thought  vibrations,  and  if  the  brain  is  attuned 


DEATH  AND  IMMORTALITY  21 

to  receive  them,  the  resulting  inharmonious 
conditions  are  sure  to  obtain. 

Colors  are  the  result  of  electric  vibration. 
Sir  William  Crookes  and  Gessler  demonstrated 
this  by  their  invention  of  vacuum  tubes.  By 
attaching  one  of  these  tubes  to  one  of  the  poles 
of  a  static  electric  machine,  or  high  frequency 
coil,  with  a  low  potency,  a  yellow  light  is  pro- 
duced. The  potency  being  increased  red  ap- 
pears. By  still  further  increasing  the  potency 
to  about  twelve  million  vibrations  per  second, 
purple  or  violet  rays  are  generated.  Then 
comes  the  Roentgen  or  X-ray — a  brilliant, 
greenish  light,  which  renders  opaque  bodies 
transparent.  Thus  science  in  electrical  discov- 
ery is  rapidly  revealing  to  us  the  secrets  of  the 
universe. 

All  vibrations  are  co-related.  For  instance, 
a  man  has  a  burst  of  violent  passion — a  high 
rate  of  brain  cell  vibration — and  we  say  he 
"sees  red."  This  is  true  and  he  is  almost  sure 
to  commit  murder  and  will  if  the  rate  of  vibra- 
tion be  kept  up  in  his  brain  cells.  And  unless 
you  can  "switch  the  current" — lower  the  vibra- 
tion— he  will  be  plunged  into  a  sea  of  color  or 
intense  vibration  which  his  brain  is  unable 
to  assimilate  and  we  have  what  we  term  insan- 
ity. The  writer  firmly  believes  that  Musical 
Vibrations  which  are  transformed  into  elec- 
trical waves  and  transmitted  to  the  patient,  will 
ultimately  be  found  to  be  the  "switch"  that 


22  THE  SECRET  OF  LIFE, 

shall  change  the  potency  of  these  vibrations  in 
the  insane,  and  restore  many  a  hopeless  entity 
to  normal  brain  conditions. 

As  another  illustration  of  the  power  of 
thought  vibrations  take  those  that  went  forth 
when  Garrison,  Phillips,  Sumner  and  others 
voiced  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  this  country, 
which  culminated  in  the  greatest  war  of  mod- 
ern times  and  developed  a  manhood  and  self- 
sacrifice  seldom  if  ever  given  to  the  world. 
This  is  Immortality.  These  events  belong  to 
no  one  country,  but  to  the  world  and  are  the 
heritage  of  humanity,  and  but  one  step  in  the 
evolution  of  the  race  toward  the  goal  of  perfect 
liberty,  which  is  the  knowledge  of  truth  and 
love,  and  the  real  brotherhood  of  man. 


DEATH  AND  IMMORTALITY  23 

CHAPTER  III 
Love  and  Music 

Their  Relation  to  Life.  Their  Influence  in 
the  Work  of  Evolution.  The  Power  of 
Love.  The  Power  of  Music.  All  Emotions 
Produced  by  and  Subject  to  These  Two 
Forces. 

Love  and  music  had  their  birth  and  growth 
simultaneously,  and  have  continued  their  jour- 
ney side  by  side. 

Primeval  man  through  passion  or  the  pro- 
creative  tendency,  surrounded  himself  with 
offspring.  Through  the  appeal  made  by  the 
helplessness  of  his  children  paternal  love  was 
evolved.  From  this  was  evolved  love  of  fam- 
ily, tribe,  clan,  and  country.  In  all  this  music 
moved  side  by  side  with  love.  The  mother 
before  language  was  born  crooned  her  lullaby 
to  her  baby,  and  the  father  imitating  the  birds 
pursed  his  lips  and  made  similar  sounds.  Later 
he  used  hollow  reeds  and  fashioned  pipes  or 
flutes.  Thus  music  was  born,  becoming  a  uni- 
versal language,  and  has  been  involved 
throughout  all  the  ages.  Music  and  love  are 
inseparable,  and  their  influence  upon  mankind 
is  unfathomable.  We  read  a  love  story,  or 
hear  a  love  song,  and  each  brings  a  thrill  of 
emotion  or  vibration  that  stimulates,  and 
brings  to  the  body  that  harmony,  the  perfec- 
tion of  which  is  fullness  of  life — health.  The 


24  THE  SECRET  OF  LIFE, 

birds  sing  their  love  songs  to  their  mates  and 
these  vibrations  fill  the  woods  with  music. 
The  humming  bird  with  continuous  accompany- 
ing melody  gathers  the  honey  from  the  flow- 
ers to  feed  its  young.  All  music  is  life  and 
life  is  love.  The  youth  is  transformed  into  a 
man,  the  maiden  into  a  woman,  by  love.  And 
this  is  a  new  birth  or  regeneration.  Emerson 
says,  "The  passion  remakes  the  world  for  the 
youth.  It  makes  all  things  alive  and  signifi- 
cant. Nature  grows  conscious.  Every  bird 
on  the  bough  of  the  tree  sings  now  to  his  heart 
and  soul.  The  trees  of  the  forest,  the  waving 
grass  and  the  peeping  flowers  have  grown  in- 
telligent." All  nature  breathes  love,  which  is 
expressed  in  self-abnegation,  dying  that  other 
species  may  live.  Prof.  Darwin  at  a  meeting 
of  a  Scientific  Society  in  Dublin  made  this 
statement,  "All  vegetation  sees,  hears,  breathes 
and  feels."  Witness  the  action  of  the  sensi- 
tive and  carnivorous  plants. 

We  have  said  all  organic  and  inorganic  ex- 
istence is  subject  to  and  lives  by  the  same 
vibratory  energy  of  the  one  substance— Elec- 
tricity. Its  vibrations  produce  "the  exquisite 
tint  of  the  rose,  the  velvet  of  the  lily  and  the 
ethereal  daintiness  of  the  orchid.  Each  is  but 
some  trifling  variation  in  the  timbre,  the  tempo 
or  the  pitch  of  vibration  that  produces  it." 

The  breathing  of  zephyrs  through  the  trees 
echoes  the  universal  language  of  music  in 


DEATH  AND  IMMORTALITY  25 

which  all  nature  voices  its  thought.  The  purl- 
ing of  the  brooks,  are  but  other  notes  by  which 
nature  sings  her  song  of  love.  "All  one's  life 
is  music  if  one  touches  the  notes  rightly  and 
in  tune." 

Musical  vibrations  are  full  of  healing  power. 
Their  effect  upon  mind  and  body  soothing  and 
vitalizing  beyond  description,  and  producing 
every  emotion  of  which  we  are  capable.  It  is 
the  key  that  will  unlock  for  us  the  deep  secrets 
of  the  universe.  Its  universal  language  en- 
ables the  composer  to  reveal  his  thoughts  to 
an  audience,  by  notes,  tones,  rhythms,  ca-« 
dences,  which  are  but  different  rates  of  vibra- 
tion. As  he  describes  a  storm,  the  wind  wails 
through  the  trees,  the  branches  sway,  the  rain 
patters  on  the  leaves.  Then  the  rush  of  the 
storm,  the  pealing  thunder,  the  flash  of  light- 
nings, the  rush  and  downpour  of  angry  waters. 
Then  comes  the  lull,  the  dying  away,  the  burst 
of  sunlight,  the  birds  singing  their  songs  of 
joy.  We  see  and  hear  it  all.  It  is  a  painting. 
It  is  a  symphony.  It  is  vibration.  Carlisle 
says,  "All  deep  things  are  songs;  see  deep 
enough  and  you  see  music.  The  heart  of  na- 
ture breathes  everywhere  music  if  you  can 
only  reach  it." 

This  love  force  or  vibration,  great  in  vol- 
ume, is  like  a  great  white  light  whose  radiant 
energy  absorbs  and  burns  up  all  its  opponents, 
auch  as  hatred,  dislike,  malice,  uncharitable- 


26  THE  SECRET  OF  LIFE, 

ness,  etc.,  just  as  the  sun  in  the  solar  system 
absorbs  all  cosmic  matter  (vibrations)  that 
comes  within  its  radius.  This  cosmic  matter 
furnishing  the  combustion  necessary  to  con- 
tinue the  radiant  energy,  which  for  us  means 
continued  existence. 

The  maiden  in  her  fresh  and  glorious  beauty, 
with  rosebud  tinted  cheeks,  the  aureole  of  the 
sun  crowning  her  hair,  her  form  swaying  with 
graceful  mien,  bursts  like  an  apparition  on  the 
youth,  and  the  refulgence  of  her  beauty  daz- 
zles him  like  the  sunlight  and  blinds  him  to  all 
else.  While  these  intense  love  vibrations  con- 
tinue he  has  no  eyes,  no  ears  for  aught  save 
her.  He  exalts  her  in  poem  and  in  song.  He 
*  'protests"  like  Romeo  and  she  like  Juliet 
"doubts"  and  "doubts,"  these  very  doubts  call- 
ing forth  more  prolerlations.  The  vibrations 
called  love  produce  a  condition,  an  emotion, 
akin  to  hysteria.  Indeed  the  brain  once  at- 
tuned to  its  vibration  becomes  obsessed  and 
all  sorts  of  vagaries  are  evolved  amounting 
to  madness  or  insanity. 

The  brain  being  attuned  by  some  dominant 
thought  immediately  assumes  telepathic  con- 
ditions. It  becomes  as  we  say  enrapport  with 
this  or  that  class  of  thought  deposited  in  the 
reservoirs  of  the  universe. 

Music  is  the  language  of  love.  Listening  to 
some  forgotten  note  or  song,  what  is  called 
memory  is  established,  and  thoughts  are  awak- 


DEATH  AND  IMMORTALITY  27 

ened  we  deemed  were  long  dead.  They  speak 
to  us  in  no  uncertain  or  unfamiliar  tones,  and 
many  a  lover's  quarrel  of  long  standing  has 
been  healed  by  this  sacrament  of  music. 

The  universe  voices  this  immortal  power. 
The  morning  stars  sing  together,  the  brooks 
ripple  their  course,  the  skylark  sings  his  glad 
carol  as  he  rises  in  the  air  to  greet  the  morn- 
ing sun,  and  all  light  and  color  vibrate  their 
praises  in  the  glorious  landscapes  they  are 
ever  painting  on  the  land.  The  sea  with  its 
ceaseless  vibration  sings  a  lullaby  to  the  tired 
brain,  or  in  its  stormy  moods  incites  man  to 
deeds  of  daring.  All  nature  is  music  and  all 
music  is  the  language  of  the  universe,  and  "the 
world  is  full  of  beauty  if  the  heart  is  full  of 
love." 


28  THE  SECRET  OF  LIFE, 

.  CHAPTER  IV 

Immortality 

Is  There  Conscious  Immortality?  What  is 
Immortality  ?  Why  We  Hope  for  Conscious- 
ness in  a  Future  Life.  How  the  Ancients 
Regarded  a  Future  Life. 

Virtue  alone  builds  pyramids.  Her 
monuments  shall  last  when  Egypt's 
fall.— Young. 

In  order  that  there  should  be  what  is  spoken 
of  as  conscious  immortality — or  post-mortem 
consciousness — there  must  be  an  entity  or  or- 
ganism to  manifest  it.  Consciousness  is  the 
resultant  of  the  vibratory  movements  of  cer- 
tain groupings  of  electrons  called  brain  cells, 
acted  on  by  certain  other  outside  vibrations. 
This  resultant  called  consciousness  is  the  "un-, 
conscious  cerebration"  of  the  scientists.  There 
can  no  more  be  consciousness  without  brain 
cells  than  there  can  be  the  music  of  a  violin 
without  the  violin.  There  must  be  the  entity 
or  personality  with  the  brain  to  receive,  pre- 
serve, and  transmit  the  vibrations  that  are  con- 
tained in  the  reservoir  of  thought  in  the  uni- 
verse. 

All  thoughts,  words  and  deeds  are  preserved 
and  exist  as  rates  of  vibration  in  the  universe, 
and  are  open  to  those  attuned  to  receive  them. 
We  spoke  in  a  former  chapter  of  the  illustra- 


DEATH  AND  IMMORTALITY  29 

tion  of  the  wireless  telegraph  and  telephone. 
The  coherer,  receiver  and  transmitter  being 
attuned,  communication  is  established.  This 
is  another  illustration  of  intelligent  PURPOSE 
in  the  universe,  and  man  is  the  mouthpiece 
of  it. 

When  it  is  seen  that  every  thought  or  word 
belongs  to  its  distinctive  wave  and  must  find 
a  brain  attuned  to  the  same  rate  of  vibration 
to  receive  and  to  voice  it,  the  irrationality  of 
endowing  an  intangible,  substanceless,  non- 
existing,  so-called  "spirit"  with  consciousness 
must  be  apparent  to  anyone. 

This  is  immortality,  which  correlates  every 
thought  and  word  of  man,  holding  them  in 
universal  phonographic  records,  as  it  were, 
forming  a  vast  reservoir  from  which  continu- 
ously flows  by  electrical  energy  all  so-called 
intelligent  and  other  vibrations,  we  receiving 
those  to  which  we  are  attuned.  This  is  a 
thought  that  might  well  engage  our  most  seri- 
ous attention,  involving  as  it  does  a  responsi- 
bility of  no  little  magnitude.  We  may  well 
pause  to  inquire  of  ourselves  what  are  we  de- 
positing in  those  archives  of  thought  for  re- 
distribution to  ourselves,  and  to  our  poster- 
ity, to  say  nothing  of  mankind  in  general. 

Certain  forms  of  vibration,  such  as  hatred, 
malice,  envy,  jealousy  and  especially  fear,  are 
productive  of  disease,  poverty,  old  age  and 
death — all  those  inharmonious  vibrations 


3D  THE  SECRET  OF  LIFE, 

which  comprise  the  sum  of  all  the  troubles  and 
sorrows  of  mankind.  The  most  productive  of 
these  inharmonious  conditions  known  as  sick- 
ness, poverty,  old  age  and  death,  is  FEAR. 
Veneration  and  worship  of  ail  kinds  is  a  form 
of  fear  and  opens  the  body  to  every  ill. 

Man  through  religious  teaching  and  self- 
made  creeds  has  evolved  the  idea  of  rewards 
and  punishments  for  the  "good"  and  "bad" 
deeds  of  this  life,  and  as  there  must  be  a  con- 
scious entity  to  punish  and  reward  and  a  place 
in  which  to  administer  the  same,  a  so-called 
"future  life"  becomes  a  necessity. 

What  rational  ground  for  all  this?  None 
whatever.  The  cessation  of  consciousness  in 
what  is  called  death,  is  an  inevitable  step  in 
the  inauguration  and  evolution  of  existence. 
As  we  have  stated  heretofore  life  and  death  are 
one  and  the  same.  The  same  unit  of  electric 
energy  with  two  impulses — life  and  death, 
Continuous  vibration.  Every  movement  be- 
ing the  evolution  of  some  new  form  demon- 
strating life's  continuity  and  electrical  nature. 

Thales  said  (600  B.  C.),  "All  around  is 
change.  Everything  always  becoming  some- 
thing else.  All  in  motion  like  streams."  He 
recognized  the  law  of  evolution  or  continuous 
vibration.  Theophrastes  (371  B.  C.)  says, 
"There  is  one  eternal,  indestructible  substance 
out  of  which  everything  arises  and  into  which 
everything  again  returns." 


DEATH  AND  IMMORTALITY  31 

That  "eternal,  indestructible  substance"  is 
now  known  to  be  electricity,  and  the  inherent, 
unceasing  energy  of  its  infinite  particles  or 
electrons — now  known  to  be  electrical,  polar, 
sexual — the  explanation  of  all  phenomena  em- 
braced under  the  terms — life  and  death.  Life 
and  Immortality  are  synonymous.  The  pres- 
ent is  eternity.  The  now  is  all  there  is.  All 
conscious  or  unconscious  thought  vibration  is 
immortal,  and  is  recorded  in  the  cylindrical 
records  of  the  universe,  and  those  having  the 
attunement  to  those  records  are  in  possession 
of  the  so-called  secrets  of  the  universe ;  which 
are  nothing  more  than  the  workings  of  nature's 
inevitable  laws  revealed  and  unfolded  to  us 
through  an  understanding  of  this  great  univer- 
sal substance — Electricity.  The  one  only  sub- 
stance in  the  universe. 

This  substance,  this  sea  of  electrons,  of  which 
we  are,  and  in  which  we  live  and  move  and 
have  our  being,  is  in  constant  motion  even  as 
the  great  body  of  water  on  our  globe.  "The 
waters  of  the  globe  are  all  one  sea  and  truly 
seen  their  tide  is  one."  So  in  this  electrical 
ocean  there  is  ebb  and  flow,  ebb  and  flow,  of 
etheric  and  atmospheric  conditions.  The 
movement  of  these  tides  and  waves  is  always 
cyclical,  proving  their  electrical  nature.  This 
is  seen  in  the  globule  of  water,  in  the  globe 
tides,  in  the  tornadoes,  cyclone,  etc.  All  so- 
called  "destructive  conditions"  are  due  to  the 


32  THE  SECRET  OF  LIFE, 

breaking  of  the  circuit  and  the  violent  deter- 
mined effort  to  close  it  again,  and  are  in  them- 
selves constructive  processes.  When  the  cir- 
cuit is  broken  the  destructive  force  is  let  loose 
and  continues  its  havoc  until  this  violently 
vibrating  mass  of  electrons  has  re-formed  into 
other  conditions  in  the  great  electrical  ocean. 

The  suns,  worlds,  planets,  stars  are  but  va- 
ried manifestations  of  this  vibratory  electrical 
force  which  through  millions  of  ages  has 
evolved  and  rotated  them  into  existence,  its 
limitless  energy  forever  continuing  the  work 
of  creation  or  evolution. 

These  worlds,  suns,  planets  being  prepared 
to  generate  and  maintain  the  various  forms  of 
life,  which  by  analogy  must  be  the  same  on 
other  planets  as  on  ours. 

Beginning  with  the  simplest  type  of  organ- 
ism, the  work  of  evolution  and  progress  is  car- 
ried on  until  the  present  race  of  mankind  with 
its  intelligence  and  will  is  produced.  And 
there  are  much  higher  types  in  the  universe 
than  what  is  called  human.  All  this  is  pro- 
duced by  the  action  of  the  vibratory  electrical 
force  which  constitutes  life — which  IS  LIFE. 
You  may  call  it  God  if  it  pleases  you. 

Consciousness,  intelligence,  is  but  the  result- 
ant of  varying  rates  of  vibration  of  different 
tempos.  The  action  of  the  vibratory  force  is 
seen  in  the  plants  and  flowers  where  the  prun- 
ing and  concentration  of  vibration  into  one 


OF  THE 

6   UNIVERSITY 

OF 


DEATH  AND  IMMORTALITY  33 

stalk  improves  the  fruit  or  flower.  In  the 
American  Beauty  rose  many  branches  and 
buds  are  sacrificed  to  bring  one  flower  to  the 
fullest  perfection. 

T?or  ages  this  same  pruning  process  has  been 
applied  to  the  organism  known  as  man,  in  or- 
der to  evolve  the  intelligence  that  has  produced 
our  men  of  genius  and  power,  to  control  in 
turn  the  very  forces  that  called  them  into  ex- 
istence. By  self-control  man  has  been  enabled 
to  direct  these  vibrations,  holding  in  check  his 
varied  passions  which  otherwise  would  injure 
him  and  hasten  his  dissolution. 

The  vibrations  known  as  the  ether  or  sound 
can  produce  every  emotion  we  are  capable  of 
displaying.  We  in  turn  control  these  same 
vibrations  and  produce  music.  Ruskin  says, 
"All  one's  life  is  music  if  one  touches  the  note 
rightly  and  in  tune."  "Light,  heat,  force,  mo- 
tion, sound,  sight,  taste,  color,  thought,  emo- 
tion all  these  are  but  different  rates  of  vibra- 
tion." 

Color  vibrations  denote  the  passions.  Yellow 
the  lymphatic,  red  the  positive  and  aggressive, 
blue  the  nervous  temperament.  Purple  or  vio- 
let are  intense  vibrations  which  usually  are 
self-destructive,  overthrowing  the  reason  and 
producing  insanity.  These  color-  vibrations 
are  in  turn  susceptible  to  inhibition  and  con- 
trol by  musical  vibrations  of  a  much  lower 
tempo  than  those  of  color;  musical  vibrations 


34  THE  SECRET  OF  LIFE, 

attaining  to  only  thirty-two  thousand  (32,000) 
per  second  at  their  highest  tempo,  while  the 
color  vibrations  known  as  violet  reach  twelve 
million  (12,000,000)  to  the  second.  Is  it  the 
SONOROSITY  of  musical  tones  that  equal- 
izes the  vibrations  of  color  and  music? 

The  vibrations  of  the  tones  of  a  violin  have 
been  known  to  heal  the  most  obstinate  wounds, 
and  even  surgical  operations  have  been  per- 
formed under  the  influence  of  musical  vibra- 
tions. So  potent  is  this  force  that  the  musical 
step  of  the  military  march  has  to  be  broken 
when  crossing  a  bridge  lest  it  collapse.  The 
walls  of  Jericho  are  said  to  have  collapsed 
under  the  vibrations  produced  by  blowing  up- 
on rams'  horns  in  the  hands  of  the  Israelites. 
Windows  have  been  broken  by  the  vibratory 
tones  of  an  organ. 

The  varying  forms  of  so-called  matter  are 
but  varying  rates  of  vibration,  ready  to  be 
acted  upon  and  dissolved  by  other  rates.  The 
same  force  that  tears  down  builds  up.  Death 
is  only  another  rate  of  vibration  set  up  by  this 
Eternal  Life.  Post-mortem  consciousness  is 
unscientific  and  ridiculous.  Organic  life  gives 
off  electrons,  that  unite  and  form  a  new  or- 
ganism, and  the  resulting  embryo  is  of  like 
organism,  perpetuating  its  kind  from  genera- 
tion to  generation.  As  this  is  continuous  and 
never  ceasing,  it  must  be  what  is  meant  by 
Immortality. 


DEATH  AND  IMMORTALITY  35 

CHAPTER  V 
The  Sun 

Its  Relation  to  Planetary  Life.  What  is  Radi- 
ant Energy?  Why  the  Ancients  Wor- 
shipped the  Sun.  The  Parsees  the  Present 
Sun  Worshippers. 

It  is  supposed  to  be  a  figure  of  speech,  a 
mere  bit  of  symbolism  to  call  the  sun  mascu- 
line and  the  earth  feminine.  To  call  the  earth 
a  woman.  To  state  that  woman  was  made 
from  man,  etc.  But  when  it  is  understood  that 
sex  is  nothing  but  polarity,  that  male  and 
female,  masculine  and  feminine  and  positive 
and  negative  are  synonymous  terms,  we  begin 
to  understand  the  truly  scientific  nature  of 
these  expressions.  They  are  purely  electrical 
terms.  This  sex  or  polarity  is  universal.  The 
Macrocosm  and  the  Microcosm  are  the  same. 
The  Universe  is  not  a  Di-verse.  Individuality 
is  not  di-viduality.  Every  organism  in  the 
universe  is  thoroughly  bi-polar  or  bi-sexual, 
manifesting  the  eternal  nature  of  its  ultimate 
component  electrons. 

The  writer  once  saw  hundreds  of  children 
under  a  common  impulse  come  swarming, 
dancing,  from  every  quarter  of  a  great  city  to  a 
common  meeting  place.  As  they  rushed  to- 
gether en  masse  their  individual  movements 
continued  until  out  of  the  marching  and  coun- 
ter-marching, the  shifting,  changing,  rearrang- 


36  THE  SECRET  OF  LIFE, 

ing,  re-adjusting  there  was  evolved  before  his 
eyes  the  flag  of  this  nation  with  its  glorious 
stripes  and  stars  composed  of  human  boys  and 
girls. 

We  have  stated  that  ether,  air,  fire,  water, 
earth,  are  but  masses  of  infinitesimally  small 
particles — called  electrons — of  the  one  prime- 
val, universal  substance,  living  their  life  of  at- 
traction and  repulsion,  embrace  and  separa- 
tion, forever  whirling  in  their  eternal  "May- 
pole dance."  Rushing  together  in  a  mad  em- 
brace, then  darting  away  to  seek  some  other 
partner.  Weaving  in  and  out,  in  and  out, 
around  about,  back  and  forth,  to  and  fro.  This 
dance  is  called  Creation — Evolution.  It  is  an 
eternal  Brocken — an  eternal  Nachtspiel. 

The  sun  is  but  one  great  mass  of  these 
whirling,  vibrating,  dancing  electrons.  As 
varying  numbers  of  these  rush  off  and  regroup 
themselves,  other  planets  are  "born"  or 
evolved.  All  depend  upon  the  larger  or  par- 
ent mass  from  which  they  parted.  Our  earth 
is  but  one  of  these  children  of  the  sun..  The 
earth  is  a  woman,  a  beautiful  woman,  forever 
young,  forever  fair.  The  sun  is  her  father. 

The  sun  is  the  primary  source  of  the  variety 
of  forms  of  life  on  this  earth.  While  the  elec- 
trical energy,  or  positive  and  negative  impulse 
of  the  electrons  of  atomic  matter,  constitute 
the  eternal  force  or  energy  called  Life,  only 
by  the  radiant  energy  of  the  sun  in  our  sys- 


DEATH  AND  IMMORTALITY  37 

tern,  could  we  have  the  planets — of  which  our 
earth  is  one — and  the  varied  forms  of  activity 
evolved  and  maintained  thereon.  Our  earth 
could  no  more  produce  these  higher  forms  of 
activity  called  mineral,  vegetable,  animal,  man, 

— all  biological  activities without  the  sun, 

than  the  female  could  produce  offspring  with- 
out the  male.  The  sun  is  positive,  the  earth 
negative.  The  sun's  vibrations  reach  our 
earth  in  about  eight  minutes  and  acting  upon 
its  atmosphere,  it  finds  a  resistance  or  polarity 
out  of  which  is  evolved  light,  heat  and  moist- 
ure. 

Every  molecule  of  our  body  is  rotated  into 
form  and  continues  its  activities  by  the  radiant 
energy  of  the  sun. 

Here  again  we  see  there  can  be  no  death. 
Every  atom  in  the  universe  is  living,  pulsating, 
vibrating  electric  energy. 

The  sun  is  like  a  great  dynamo,  rotating 
every  planetary  body  into  form  and  position, 
and  through  its  continued  radio-activity  car- 
rying on  the  further  processes  of  creation 
called  the  evolution  of  sentient  life.  It  is 
often  asked,  "Are  other  worlds  inhabited  by 
sentient  beings?"  There  can  be  no  reason  for 
supposing  otherwise.  Given  atmospheres,  and 
the  radiant  energy  of  the  sun  or  suns,  must  by 
analogy  evolve  like  results  on  other  planets. 

We  do  not  wonder  the  ancients  worshipped 
the  sun.  They  regarded  it  as  the  source  or 


38  THE  SECRET  OF  LIFE, 

author  of  their  being — their  Creator.  The 
theologian  calls  his  creator  God.  But  the  He- 
brew word  for  God  is  Elohim — creative  forces. 
John  says,  "The  word  was  God."  The  psalm- 
ist says,  "Day  unto  day  uttereth  speech."  What 
is  speech  but  vibration?  The  sun  is  the  source 
of  all  vibration  in  the  solar  system.  It  has 
created  this  earth  and  all  its  inhabitants.  All 
forms  of  life  on  this  planet,  all  activities,  are 
but  the  radiant  energv  of  the  sun. 


DEATH  AND  IMMORTALITY  39 

CHAPTER  VI 
Fear 

The  Great  Curse  of  Humanity.  The  Only 
Devil.  Its  Insidious  Claims.  Its  Effect  on 
Life. 

"The  thing  that  I  feared  hath  come 
upon  me." — Job. 

Through  fear  the  human  race  has  been  con- 
verted into  cowards  and  slaves. 

In  a  former  chapter  we  have  suggested  the 
origin  or  birth  of  this  demon  with  its  subse- 
quent evolution  of  the  ideas  of  good  and  evil, 
rewards  and  punishments,  religions,  right  and 
wrong,  etc. — Side  by  side  with  the  above  was 
the  evolution  of  the  conscience,  which  in  turn 
became  the  greatest  producer  of  fear  known  to 
the  human  race.  The  conscience,  that  Shakes- 
peare says  "doth  make  cowards  of  us  all."  A 
modern  teacher  says  "Conscience  is  the  jaw 
of  morality.  It  has  spread  far  outside  the 
Christian  or  any  other  religion  and  become  an 
essential  factor  of  modern  civilization.  Con- 
science is  the  most  depressing  element  in  hu- 
man existence.  Its  entire  business  is  to  re- 
duce spirit.  Every  inch  of  its  energy  is  laid 
out  against  health.  It  taxes  vitality.  It  claws 
with  shame.  It  bites  with  disgrace.  It  mur- 
ders with  morbidness,  both  body  and  mind. 
It  manufactures  right  and  wrong.  It  dis- 


40  THE  SECRET  OF  LIFE, 

charges  poison  or  stimulant  into  the  blood  and 
nerves. . .  It  has  scared  the  race  into  trembling 
lest  it  leave  them.  It  has  made  cowards  of 
us  all." 

In  man's  effort  to  escape  the  thralldom  of 
these  twin  curses, — fear  and  conscience—- 
which so  often  drives  humanity  to  self-destruc- 
tion or  loss  of  reason,  and  feeling  his  helpless- 
ness against  these  demons,  he  sought  a  means 
of  propitiating  them,  and  so  constructed  a  sys- 
tem of  religious  belief.  Believing  that  his 
Gods  must  be  placated  for  his  fancied  trans- 
gressions, a  form  of  worship  was  evolved,  with 
ceremonies  involving  sacrifice  of  blood,  gifts 
of  money,  and  treasure  for  building  magnifi- 
cent temples,  churches,  abbeys  and  monaster- 
ies. Lavishing  billions  of  dollars  upon  their 
architecture  and  art.  All  these  were  efforts  to 
overcome  fear,  and  appease  a  conscience,  which 
was  evolved  through  the  influence  of  the 
shadow-world  and  the  folk-lore  of  primitive 
man  upon  the  progenitors  of  the  race. 

We  have  only  to  vibrate  the  unused  cells  of 
the  brain  to  bring  forth  primitive  savagery. 
Take  the  action  of  a  mob — let  a  vibratory  wave 
of  passion  be  set  up  in  the  unused  cells  of  the 
brain  and  the  entity  knows  no  law  but  primi- 
tive force.  Fear  is  for  the  time  forgotten  in 
the  lust  for  blood.  This  is  the  explanation  of 
the  so-called  bravery  of  the  soldier  in  time  of 
battle.  Although  fear  dominates  him  before 


DEATH  AND  IMMORTALITY  41 

the  clash  of  arms  is  reached,  yet  the  moment 
he  meets  his  antagonist  the  primitive  lust  for 
blood  overcomes  his  fear  and  he  becomes  once 
more  a  primeval  savage  and  fights  to  the  death. 
The  rationale  of  this  is,  that  environment  and 
mode  of  thought  has  put  in  vibration  and  at- 
tuned certain  cells  of  the  brain,  by  which  he 
establishes  communication  with  some  reservoir 
of  primitive  savage  vibration  in  the  universe, 
and  all  the  wild  impulses  of  primeval  instinct 
rush  into  and  dominate  him. 

The  forgotten  "vices"  of  our  ancestors,  ap- 
parently repeated  from  generation  to  genera- 
tion, mean  no  more  than  this,  as  we  have  sug- 
gested heretofore;  environment  and  its  en- 
gendered mode  of  thought  simply  fitting  the 
brain  as  a  receiver  for  the  reception  of  specific 
vibrations.  We  treat  as  criminals  those  who 
should  be  really  treated  for  disease.  We  are 
responsible  for  the  slum  conditions  in  our  cities 
and  country  which  set  up  the  brain  attunement 
that  calls  forth  these  vibrations  of  ancestral 
vices.  This  is  HOW  the  slums  breed  vice  and 
crime.  And  it  is  in  this  direction  we  should 
put  forth  our  efforts  to  reform  the  criminal. 
Are  we  not  responsible  for  our  criminals?  We 
most  assuredly  are.  We  are  responsible  for 
these  slum  conditions  and  environments  which 
create  and  bring  into  play  these  specific  brain 
cells  and  cell  vibrations.  We  say  "Natural 
born  criminals."  Not  always.  They  are  made 


42  THE  SECRET  OF  LIFE, 

so  by  environment.  If  the  money  spent  in  the 
effort  to  reform  the  vicious  and  criminal  was 
applied  to  cleansing  the  slums  and  changing 
man's  environment,  it  would  greatly  reduce 
the  necessity  for  jails,  reform  schools  and  asy- 
lums. We  should  enact  laws  to  enable  us  to 
begin  with  the  child  in  the  public  schools- 
compulsory  if  necessary.  Not  only  educating, 
but  seeing  that  they  were  properly  clothed  and 
housed  and  fed,  and  removed  from  their  vicious 
surroundings,  parents  or  guardians.  In  fact, 
we  are  the  real  criminals  who  permit  such  a 
thing  as  a  crime  producing  slum  or  a  "poor 
quarter."  The  state  can  easily  afford  to  do 
this  in  order  to  do  away  with  the  so-called 
vicious  element  or  criminal  class. 

The  present  progress  of  invention  in  labor- 
saving  devices  call  for  a  greater  intelligence 
than  the  handling  of  the  pick  and  the  shovel, 
and  this  is  being  evolved ;  and  this  great  living 
vibratory  energy  or  force  which  created  man 
and  evolved  his  intellect  and  his  will,  man  has 
in  turn  harnessed  for  his  use,  reducing  the 
necessity  for  excessive  manual  labor;  and  he 
will  have  more  time  for  the  arts  and  sciences. 
The  "man  with  the  hoe,"  will  become  the  man 
with  the  electric  plow  and  cultivator,  and  in- 
stead of  hard,  laborious  work,  these  wonderful 
electric  inventions  will  eventually  reduce  all 
labor  to  mild  recreation  and  enjoyment.  This 
wonderful  electric  force  has  now  become  a 


DEATH  AND  IMMORTALITY  43 

servant  and  is  willing  and  eager  to  give  its 
restless  energy  to  man.  It  is  the  power  that 
Tennyson  says  is  "closer  to  you  than  breath- 
ing, nearer  than  hands  and  feet."  It  is  your 
universal  father  ready  to  give  whatsoever  you 
ask ;  but  man  must  study  to  know  this  power, 
and  learn  its  natural  movements  in  order  to 
come  into  the  full  benefit  of  his  rightful  heri- 
tage of  this  primal  force  by  which  he  was 
evolved  into  conscious  existence. 

The  blight  of  fear  has  retarded  the  human 
race  from  coming  into  its  heritage  of  knowl- 
edge concerning  this  primal  substance  and 
force  of  the  universe — Electricity.  Every  ef- 
fort of  science  to  explain  phenomena  has  been 
frowned  upon  and  opposed  by  theology,  which 
is  the  child  of  fear  and  conscience,  Man  has 
been  kept  in  swaddling  clothes  which  have 
prevented  his  growth  to  maturity.  But  thanks 
to  the  change  of  nurses  during  the  recent  cen- 
turies his  clothes  have  been  changed  so  fre- 
quently that  he  has  had  an  opportunity  to  grow 
lusty,  and  all  the  efforts  of  nurses  to  keep  him 
in  leading-strings  today  are  unavailing.  He  is 
outgrowing  fear  and  superstition  that  has  so 
long  strangled  science.  And  science  is  de- 
stroying fear  by  its  revelations  of  the  workings 
of  natural  law,  which  in  the  field  of  electrical 
discovery  is  making  its  most  rapid  strides. 


44  THE  SECRET  OF  LIFE, 

CHAPTER  VII 
Death 

Its  Relation  to   Life.     Its   Immortality.     Its 
loving  purpose.     Its  Relation  to  Evolution. 

"To  die,  to  sleep,— To  sleep!  per- 
chance to  dream!  ay  there's  the 
rub." — Shakespeare. 

In  preceding  chapters  I  have  so  frequently 
made  the  statement  that  life  and  death  are  one 
and  the  same,  that  it  seems  almost  superfluous 
to  say  another  word  on  the  subject.  But  I  am 
willing,  even  at  the  risk  of  seeming  pedantic, 
to  re-state  the  argument,  which  is  not  only 
simple  and  easy  of  comprehension,  but  at  the 
same  time  both  scientific  and  rational. 

Without  desiring  to  enter  upon  the  realm  of 
metaphysics  in  this  book,  it  will  be  sufficient 
to  say  that  we  use  the  term  Life  in  its  fullest 
sense,  and  not  in  the  restricted  one  of  con- 
sciousness. Consciousness  itself  being  but 
one  expression  of  life. 

Two  Irishmen  walking  along  a  road  came 
upon  a  turtle.  It  had  been  decapitated  and 
its  head  lay  some  distance  away  from  its  body. 
"Begorra,"  says  Pat,  "he's  dead  sure  enough. 
His  head's  cut  off."  Mike  picked  up  a  stick 
and  punched  the  turtle's  feet,  who  immediately 
withdrew  them  inside  his  shell.  "No,"  says  he, 
"he's  aloive.  See  him  move."  "You're  a  fool 


DEATH  AND  IMMORTALITY  45 

Mike,"  says  Pat.  "He's  dead  I  tell  you.  Don't 
you  see  his  head's  cut  off."  "He's  aloive," 
said  Mike,  "you  can  see  him  move."  The  ar- 
gument became  heated,  Mike  insisting  that  a 
dead  turtle  couldn't  move,  and  Pat  being  equal- 
ly insistent  that  10  turtle  with  his  head  cut  off 
could  be  alive.  The  matter  was  about  to  be 
referred  to  the  Irishman's  court  of  last  resort, 
when  a  Dutchman,  passing  along,  an  armis- 
tice was  established,  and  the  matter  referred 
to  him  for  decision.  The  Dutchman  examined 
the  turtle  and  discovered  it  had  been  killed  in 
a  supposedly  most  effective  manner  by  having 
its  head  cut  off.  Mike's  test  with  the  stick, 
however,  revealed  the  ability  on  the  part  of 
the  turtle  for  pretty  lively  activity.  He  then 
arose  and  delivered  himself,  "Gentlemen,  dot 
turtle  iss  dead  all  right, — but  it  don't  know 
it." 

Every  area  of  being, — of  the  universe,  is 
eternally  alive.  It  doesn't  always  KNOW  it. 

We  repeat,  there  is  one — can  be  but  one — 
Be-ing.  This  being  is  not  mind,  nor  its  prod- 
uct matter.  Ether  is  only  a  refined  form  of 
matter.  Mind  is  adjudged  to  be  a  still  more 
refined  form  of  that  same  matter.  But  being 
is  Substance.  You  may  call  it  Spirit  (or  mean- 
ing) or  you  may  call  it  God.  Paul  called  it 
Faith,  and  said  "by  it  and  of  it  the  worlds  were 
made." 

We  call  it  Electricity.     Every  infinitesimal 


46  THE  SECRET  OF  LIFE, 

electron  of  this  substance,  as  we  have  stated, 
is  by-polar  or  sexual.  Attracting  and  repel- 
ling, embracing  and  separating.  This  eternal, 
inherent  or  natural  law  of  their  being  is  Life, 
— energy,  activity.  The  resultant  of  these  ac- 
tivities : — the  worlds  and  all  that  in  them  is. 

Suppose  a  great  mass  of  type  moved  by  an 
inherent,  automatic,  continuous  impulse.  Its 
integral  component  letters  forever  arranging 
themselves  into  words,  phrases,  sentences,  etc. 
For  illustration:  The  letters  E-V-I-L  create 
the  word  Evil.  Rearrange  the  same  letters 
and  your  word  Evil  disappears  and  the  word 
L-I-V-E,  Live,  appears,  or  is  born,  created, 
evolved,  whatever.  The  energy,  the  auto-ac- 
tivity would  be  one  and  the  same.  The  dis- 
integration and  disappearance  of  one  word,  and 
the  re-adjustment  of  letters  and  appearance  or 
creation  of  another  word  being  equally  the  re- 
sultant of  the  same  letters,  with  their  same 
inherent  energy  and  impulse.  You  might  call 
one  part  of  the  process  Creation  and  another 
part  Destruction,  but  the  process  is  one  and 
continuous!.  Your  division  is  merely  hypo- 
thetical, or  assumed.  What  is  destroyed? 
The  letters  remain,  and  their  inherent  energy 
or  impulse  remains — all  there  was  at  any 
time. 

The  integral,  component  particles — electrons 
-—of  the  one  only  eternal  substance,  are  the  let- 
ters comprising  the  universe.  Their  inherent, 


DEATH  AND  IMMORTALITY  47 

automatic,  eternal  energy,  activity — Life — for- 
ever spelling  out  words  and  sentences,  etc., 
that  go  to  make  up  the  Book  of  Life.  They 
arrange  themselves  as  earthquake  or  pesti- 
lence, famine,  murder,  birth,  disease,  old  age, 
death,  sunshine,  flowers,  music,  painting, 
sculpture,  art,  laughter,  tears,  whatever.  What 
are  these  terms  but  names  for  the  varied  activ- 
ities of  life?  Life  is  all  there  is.  What  is  called 
death  is  equally  life.  Life  and  death  are  the 
two  impulses  of  this  one  universal  force. 

In  certain  of  its  phenomena,  now  classified 
as  electrical,  this  dual  impulse  is  noted  and  its 
action  is  called  "closing  the  circuit"  and 
"breaking  the  circuit."  This  same  dual  im- 
pulse or  tendency  to  embrace  and  separate — 
embrace  and  separate — obtains  throughout  the 
entire  cosmos,  proving  the  universality  of  elec- 
trical action.  Ether,  fire,  air,  water,  earth, 
sound,  sensation,  light,  form,  color,  smell,  food, 
thought  are  all  known  to  be  modes  of  motion 
— rates  of  vibration.  Motion  of  what?  Rate 
of  vibration  of  what? — Of  the  infinite,  integral, 
component  electrons  of  the  one  universal  sub- 
stance. 

All  movement,  or  action,  or  impulse,  is  in  a 
straight  line,  and  in  a  circle.  The  movement 
in  a  straight  line  is  the  repulsion,  the  depart- 
ure, the  separation.  Motion  in  a  circle  is  the 
attraction,  the  return,  the  embrace.  This  is 
polarity.  This  is  sex.  This  is  Eternal  Life. 


48  THE  SECRET  OF  LIFE, 

This  is  Eternal  Death.     The  Two  Immortals 
or  the  One  (bi-polar,  bi-sexual)  Immortal. 

We  repeat,  all  the  substance  there  is  is  Elec- 
tricity. All  the  force  there  is,  therefore,  is 
electrical.  There  being  but  one  substance — * 
synthetic  being — all  force  must  be  electrical. 
This  electrical  force  is  a  unit,  but  has  two  im- 
pulses, positive  and  negative,  attraction  and 
repulsion. 

All  organic  forms  contains  these  impulses. 
For  illustration,  take  a  human  entity.  The 
positive  we  call  man,  the  negative  woman. 
Through  the  embrace  of  certain  electrons 
thrown  off  from  the  organism  of  each  (physio- 
logically termed  the  spermatozoa  of  the  male 
and  the  fecundating  fluid  of  the  female),  there 
is  estabished  the  basis  of  a  future  organism  for 
manifesting  consciousness  and  conscious  or  in- 
telligent activity.  A  journey  is  begun.  Life 
and  death  are  one  and  move  side  by  side.  Their 
eternal  impulse  ever  active.  If  what  is  called 
harmony  or  health  prevails  a  vigorous  entity  is 
evolved  and  continued.  When  the  negative 
tendency  or  inharmony  prevails  in  this  con- 
tinued struggle  for  supremacy,  beyond  a  cer- 
tain limit,  the  organism  becomes  de-harmon- 
ized, dis-eased,  disabled,  unconscious,  disinte- 
grated. Such  is  this  restless  energy  we  call 
life.  The  circuit  completed,  life  and  death  (the 
positive  and  negative  impulse),  move  together 
side  by  side,  but  the  tendency  to  break  the  cir- 


DEATH  AND  IMMORTALITY  49 

cuit — as  well  as  to  close  the  circuit — always 
obtains.  When  this  occurs  there  is  a  re-adjust- 
ment of  conditions,  out  of  which  new  forms  of 
life  appear. 

There  can  be  no  antagonism  in  a  unit. 
There  is  only  a  restless  energy  and  impulse  to 
effect  changes;  to  continue  the  work  of  crea- 
tion or  evolution.  I  want  my  readers  to  recog- 
nize death  as  a  friend,  and  not  as  so  many  re- 
gard him,  an  enemy.  He  has  been  and  is  our 
constant  companion — he  is  ourself,  and  is  en- 
titled to  fuller  and  kinder  recognition.  We 
scandalize  death  and  caricature  and  abuse  him, 
not  realizing  that  we  are  abusing  ourselves. 
When  the  tired  organism  craves  only  rest,  how 
readily  we  should  welcome  his  loving  em- 
brace. We  cannot  love  life  without  loving 
death,  as  they  are  one  and  inseparable,  being 
the  unit — which  is  all  there  is.  What  is  true 
of  this  ceaseless  energy  or  electrical  impulse 
as  manifested  in  organic  forms,  is  also  true 
in  inorganic  forms.  It  generates  all  vegetables, 
and  fruits  and  flowers,  giving  them  beauty  and 
fragrance  and  flavor.  And  we  note  the  same 
spherical  growth  in  all,  demonstrating  the 
electrical  nature  of  all  creation.  Each  cell  is 
rotated  into  form  by  this  dual  impulse.  We 
see  the  same  spherical  formation  in  our  for- 
ests. 

The  same  "dissolution"  or  change  takes  place 
in  in-organic  as  in  organic  life.  As  the  "speck" 


50  THE  SECRET  OF  LIFE, 

or  decayed  spot  appears  on  the  apple  we  know 
the  circuit  has  been  broken  and  the  negative 
tendency  becoming  the  stronger.  Everywhere, 
everything  is  the  circle,  and  everywhere  the 
tendency  to  break  that  circle  or  circuit.  In  the 
celestial  bodies  called  worlds,  it  is  the  same  as 
in  the  flower.  Astronomers  agree  that  there 
is  an  ultimate  limit  to  the  so-called  "life"  of 
all  planetary  bodies.  This  is  true.  They 
have  been  evolved  and  devolved  for  aeons  and 
aeons  of  time.  And  the  eternal  electrical  im- 
pulse and  energy  will  continue  its  sport  of  cre- 
ation and  of  destruction  throughout  the  ages 
yet  to  be. 

Life  is.  Without  beginning — without  dura- 
tion— without  ending.  Such  is  the  meaning  of 
the  word  Eternity. 


DEATH  AND  IMMORTALITY  51 

CHAPTER  VIII 
Healing 

Mental  Therapeutics  or  Healing  Suggestions. 
Christian  Science.  Mental  Science.  Faith 
Healing,  Etc. 

As  stated  in  a  former  chapter,  every  system 
of  so-called  mental  healing  being  practiced  in 
these  States  or  elsewhere  today,  whether  it 
calls  itself  Christian  Science,  Mental  Science, 
Divine  Healing,  New  Thought,  Suggestive 
Therapeutics,  or  whatever,  is  but  an  effort — 
with  more  or  less  understanding — to  utilize 
the  law  of  electric  vibration. 

Mrs.  Eddy  says  in  "Science  and  Health," 
page  292,  "Electricity  is  not  a  vital  fluid,  but 
the  least  material  form  of  illusive  conscious- 
ness." "Electricity  is  the  sharp  surplus  of 
materiality  which  counterfeits  the  true  essence 
of  spiritual  truth."  (So  simple,  isn't  it?)  "The 
vapid  fury  of  mortal  mind  expressed  in  earth- 
quakes, wind,  waves,  lightning,  fire  and  bestial 
ferocity  shows  the  so-called  mind  to  be  self- 
destructive." 

There  is  one  synthetical  substance,  or  truth, 
in  the  universe.  You  may  name  it  to  suit 
yourself.  It  will  smell  just  as  sweet  and  act 
just  the  same  under  whatever  name  you  may 
give  it.  It  has  a  habit  of  remaining  just  what 
it  is  yesterday,  today  and  forever.  We  call  it 


52  THE  SECRET  OF  LIFE, 

Electricity.  It  is  the  one  mind,  the  one  sub- 
stance, the  all  and  in  all.  From  it  is  evolved 
matter  in  all  its  various  forms.  The  unit  of  all 
force  is  electrical;  the  two  impulses  of  which 
account  for  the  variety  of  forms  in  which  it 
manifests  itself.  It  creates,  preserves,  de- 
stroys, and  the  various  manifestations,  such  as 
earthquake,  floods,  fire,  lightening  are  but 
results  of  these  two  impulses,  and  simply  show 
the  absence  of  any  intelligent  PURPOSE 
whatever;  and  forces  us  to  see  that  there  can 
be  no  such  thing  as  a  Supreme  Being — or 
supreme  intelligence  in  the  universe.  That 
this  great  omnipresent  energy  which  evolved 
the  meaningless  phrases  and  sentences  of  Mrs. 
Eddy's  "Christian  Science"  was  acting  neither 
less  nor  more  "intelligently"  than  when  it  pro- 
duced a  Beethoven  sonata  or  a  Dante's  In- 
ferno. 

Man  seems  to  have  been  able  to  a  certain  ex- 
tent to  control  this  force  and  harness  it  to  his 
use,  and  has  materially  lessened  its  destruc- 
tive tendency  by  devices  such  as  the  lighten- 
ing-rod  and  various  insulating  methods.  This 
is  an  evidence  of  intelligent  purpose  evolved  by 
the  vibratory  forces  of  this  intelligent  sub- 
stance. 

Man  has  subjected  this  force  to  his  usage 
upon  his  own  organism  and  the  results  are  as- 
tounding. Every  day  some  new  application  is 
being  made.  In  the  field  of  Electro-Thera- 


DEATH  AND  IMMORTALITY  53 

peutics  there  are  so  many  new  developments, 
so  many  wondrous  actions  on  various  diseases 
that  the  medical  profession  has  to  constantly 
revise  its  text  books,  in  order  to  keep  step 
with  this  stately  energy  that  is  marching  on 
to  disclose  to  those  attuned  to  receive  them 
the  great  secrets  of  nature. 

We  have  the  phonograph,  which  deposits 
the  vibrations  of  the  human  voice — or  any 
other  vibration,  upon  the  wax  cylinder,  which 
can  be  preserved  almost  indefinitely  and  re- 
produced at  will.  From  whence  came  the  vi- 
bratory impulse  or  suggestion  that  invented 
the  phonograph?  The  within  is  as  the  with- 
out. The  above  is  as  the  below.  The  ma- 
crocosm is  as  the  microcosm.  Is  there  not  in 
the  laboratory  of  the  universe  some  cyclical  or 
cylindrical  formation  (as  all  electric  force — 
which  is  all  the  force  there  is — is  spherical) 
that  receives,  and  preserves,  and  reproduces 
the  impressions  of  all  thoughts,  words  and 
deeds,  the  brain  specifically  attuned  receiving 
its  specific  vibration,  or  thought?  Does  it  re- 
quire any  great  effort  to  grasp  the  thought  that 
the  electrical  (mental,  thought)  forces  or  vi- 
brations of  the  universe  can  be  utilized  by  us, 
to  act  on  the  cells  of  the  brain  and  convey  to 
the  body  or  its  various  organs  through  the 
nerves,  our  commands  to  cast  out  all  inhar- 
monious vibration,  and  to  refuse  to  entertain 
any  but  harmonious  or  healthful  suggestions. 


54  THE  SECRET  OF  LIFE, 

"Whatsoever  a  man  thinketh,  he  is."  We 
repeat,  these  so-called  healthful  vibrations  are 
as  free  to  all  as  the  air  they  breathe  and  can- 
not be  corralled  by  any  set  of  healers.  This  is 
not  said  to  discredit  any  system  of  healing,  for 
all  are  with  more  or  less  understanding  using 
the  same  principle,  and  with  accordingly  vary- 
ing degrees  of  success.  But  it  is  said  to  de- 
stroy and  nullify  any  claim  of  exclusive  ability. 

To  attune  yourself  to  receive  these  health- 
giving  or  harmony-producing  vibrations  be 
alone.  Assume  any  comfortable  position.  Let 
the  body  relax  and  the  mind  become  passive. 
All  speech  is  electrical  in  its  vibratory  action. 
Use  these  words: 

BE  STILL  AND  KNOW  THAT  I  AM 
GOD. 

You  may  be  afraid  at  first  to  say  these 
words.  This  is  all  the  more  reason  why  you 
should  say  them.  There  is  nothing  so  de- 
harmonizing  and  de-vitalizing  as  fear.  Read 
the  chapter  in  this  book  on  '"'Fear"  again,  and 
cast  it  out  of  you  forever. 

Listen — no  person  ever  died  saying,  "Be 
Still  and  Know  That  I  Am  God." 

The  repetition  of  these  words  will  gradu- 
ally attune  the  brain  to  receive  the  most 
health-giving,  vitalizing  vibrations  in  the  uni- 
verse. These,  acting  on  the  cells  of  the  brain 
are  conveyed  throughout  the  entire  body  by 
th«  nerves.  The  lungs,  the  liver,  the  stomach 


DEATH  AND  IMMORTALITY  55 

all — will  gradually  receive  these  vitalizing, 

curative   thought  vibrations,   and   respond  to 
them. 

Sometimes  these  inharmonious  conditions 
seem  persistent  and  hard  to  overcome,  and 
patience  and  perseverance  in  repetition  may  be 
necessary.  But  persevere  and  you  cannot  fail 
to  win  out.  It  is  as  certain  as  that  friction 
will  produce  fire,  and  that  heat  will  dissolve 
ice.  Don't  whine.  Don't  beg.  Don't  pray. 
Command,  as  is  your  right  and  privilege,  as 
a  unit  of  this  mighty  electric  force  which  is 
life  and  health.  It's  up  to  you.  All  the  life 
and  health  of  the  universe  is  yours  if  you 
will.  Permanent,  abiding,  continuous  at- 
tunernent  to  the  infinite  ocean  of  force,  is  to 
continue  the  integrity  of  the  organism  you  call 
your — Self. 

Radium 

Note. — The  discovery  of  radium  opened  up 
a  field  of  experiment  and  investigation  that 
has  greatly  confirmed  in  the  scientific  mind  the 
belief  that  all  action  is  electrical  and  that  in 
this  direction  will  be  found  the  solution  of  all 
biological  problems. 

It  is  now  thought  by  scientists  that  radium 
is  the  source  of  life,  if  not  the  so-called  AURA 
of  life  itself.  If  this  were  true,  it  would  only 
mean  that  radium  is  the  fundamental,  basic, 
primeval  substance  of  the  universe,  which  we 


56  THE  SECRET  OF  LIFE, 

have  termed  Electricity. ..  It  is  known  to  be 
electrical  in  its  action,  giving  off  light,  heat 
and  radiant  energy.  It  seems  to  be  self -ex- 
istent, or  self-renewing,  suffering  no  apparent 
diminution  of  its  force  or  energy. 

One  thing  is  certain,  Electricity  is  Life,  and 
in  the  eternally  inherent,  automatic  impulse  of 
its  individual  electrons  will  be  found  the  solu- 
tion of  all  phenomena.  In  radium  or  radio- 
activity science  may  be  getting  down  to  "bed- 
rock." At  any  rate,  it  is  hot  on  the  trail  that 
will  lead  to  the  discovery  of  the  truth  we  are 
announcing,  viz.:  that  there  is  but  one  sub- 
stance— Electricity,  whose  eternal,  infinite  ex- 
pression is  Life. 


DEATH  AND  IMMORTALITY  57 

CHAPTER  IX 

Resume  and  Conclusion 

In  the  foregoing  chapters  I  have  endeavored 
to  explain  the  great  primeval  force  of  life — 
Electricity.     The  task  is  an  almost  impossible 
one,  for,  while  I  know  that  my  premises  and 
deductions  are  correct,  it  is  more  than  difficult 
by  words  and  phrases  and  sentences  to  convey 
to  the  reader  my  deep  conviction  of  the    cor- 
rectness of  the  theory  introduced       in      these 
pages. 

Some  of  the  greatest  scientists  in  the  world 
are  experimenting  with  this  vital  force,  and 
almost  daily  the  newspapers  contain  accounts 
of  the  phenomenal  results  that  are  attending 
their  efforts. 

Recently  in  Copenhagen  a  certain  journal- 
ist had  his  portrait  "photographed  by  elec- 
tricity." Copies  were  distributed  throughout 
the  city  he  was  about  to  visit  with  instructions 
that  he  be  arrested  on  sight.  This  was  ef- 
fected immediately  upon  his  arrival  there. 

An  important  recent  discovery  is  an  elec- 
tric lamp  which  can  dissipate  fog.  It  produces 
a  clear,  greenish,  penetrating  light  like  moon- 
light. It  gives  a  great  illuminating  power? 
without  heat  something  like  the  X-ray. 

Recently,  aerograms  were  received  in  Hono- 
lulu and  San  Francisco  from  Japan,  proving 


58  THE  SECRET  OF  LIFE, 

that  the  ethereal  electrons  are  sure  conductors 
throughout  the  cosmos.  Entering,  as  this 
untiring  energy  does,  into  our  every  day  life, 
it  is  not  difficult  for  us  to  see  that— Life  is— 
and  that  Electricity  is  the  only  substance,  out 
of  whose  revelations  we  are  growing  into 
greater  understanding  of  the  forces  and  work- 
ings of  nature.  These  forces — variations  and 
modifications  of  the  one  force — Electrical  en- 
ergy— have  ever  BEEN ;  but  it  has  taken  mil- 
lions of  ages  and  the  evolution  and  develop- 
ment of  man's  intelligence  to  even  grasp  the 
A,  B,  C  of  this  almighty  power.  The  future 
has  in  store  discoveries  of  such  magnitude  and 
of  such  vast  importance  to  the  human  race  in 
this  field  of  electrical  phenomena  that  we  may 
well  exclaim,  as  did  the  psalmist,  "such  knowl- 
edge is  too  wonderful  for  me,  it  is  high,  I  can- 
not attain  unto  it." 

All  natural  law  is  but  some  form  of  electrical 
energy  by  which  is  evolved  all  the  various 
manifestations  of  this  wonder-working  sub- 
stance. Atmospheres,  ether,  air,  fire,  water, 
earth,  stars,  planets,  suns,  worlds,  man,  are  but 
combinations  and  vibrations  of  the  integral 
particles  or  electrons  of  this  one  substance. 
Mountain  and  star-mist,  consciousness,  intelli- 
gence, savage,  Sage,  Sufi,  all  objective  and 
subjective  (organic  and  inorganic)  entities, 
are  but  the  infinite  manifestations  of  this  uni- 
versal substance. 


DEATH  AND  IMMORTALITY  59 

The  X-ray  is  but  an  intense  display  pro- 
duced by  the  vibration  of  trillions  of  these 
electrons.  All  that  is  called  mind  and  all  that 
is  called  matter,  is  but  an  expression  of  this 
one  universal  substance.  In  its  eternal  rest- 
less energy  it  creates,  preserves,  destroys,  in- 
numerable forms  of  mind  and  matter.  This  is 
eternal  life.  This  is  eternal  intelligence.  And 
"Day  unto  day  uttereth  speech  and  night  unto 
night  showeth  knowledge." 

A  recent  author  on  "Individualism  and  the 
vibratory  energy"  says,  "Spirit  and  matter  are 
one  and  the  same  vibratory  force;  and  mind 
and  matter  are  one  and  not  distinct  sub- 
stances." 

Since  commencing  to  write  these  lines  the 
author  has  found  a  number  of  writers  whose 
works  have  been  of  great  help  to  him,  and 
served  to  confirm  him  in  his  theory. 

The  attunement  of  the  brain  cells  to  varying 
rates  of  vibration  in  the  universe,  brings  all 
things  to  you  on  the  principle  of  the  wireless 
telegraph.  "All  things  are  yours,"  was  the 
announcement  of  the  Master  of  the  Christian 
system.  This  is  scientifically  true.  The  uni- 
verse is  at  your  disposal  and  you  can  get  it. 
Not  through  sorrow,  and  toil  and  labor,  but  in 
the  same  way  that  trees  and  flowers  get  it — 
inspirationally. 

Telepathy,  which  is  attracting  wide-spread 
notice  at  the  present  time,  is  as  scientific  as 


60  THE  SECRET  OF  LIFE, 

telegraphy.  Some  of  the  greater  scientists  are 
investigating  its  claims  through  "spiritual  me- 
diums," though  there  are  few  who  accept  the 
latter's  claims,  as  in  such  a  field  it  would  be 
impossible  to  prevent  impostors  from  preying 
upon  the  ignorant  and  credulous.  There  are 
honest  mediums.  In  fact,  every  human  entity 
is  a  "medium,"  receiving  and  transmitting,  re- 
ceiving and  transmitting  continually. 

There  are  some  so  accutely  attuned  by  en- 
vironment and  habit  of  thought,  to  the  uni- 
verse of  thought,  that  they  receive  communi- 
cations beyond  their  fellows.  These  are  poets, 
artists,  musicians,  inventors,  etc..  The  thoughts 
of  Plato,  Socrates,  Krishma,  Jesus,  ARE  to- 
day. You  may  know  all  they  knew  if  you  can 
attune  yourself  to  such  a  rate  of  vibration  as 
to  establish  the  proper  connection.  This  is  a 
plain,  every-day,  scientific,  matter-of-fact  ex- 
planation of  all  modern  "spiritualistic  com- 
munications." There  should  be  no  more  mys- 
tery or  superstition,  or  spiritual  clap-trap  about 
it  than  there  is  about  wireless  telegraphy. 

There  are  persons  who  can  readily  attune 
themselves  to  the  vibrations  of  another  and 
"read  the  thoughts" — unconscious  as  well  as 
conscious — of  individuals  composing  an  entire 
audience.  With  many  this  is  easily  accom- 
plished through  personal  contact.  Some  years 
ago  the  writer  of  these  pages  was  well  ac- 
quainted with  Washington  Irving  Bishop,  the 


DEATH  AND  IMMORTALITY  61 

great  "mind  reader,"  who  since  died,  or  was 
murdered  by  doctors  in  New  York,  who  dis- 
sected his  brain  while  he  was  in  a  cataleptic 
condition,  they  supposing  him  dead.  One  of 
his  performances  was  to  have  some  stranger 
take  a  bank-note,  read  the  number  on  it  and 
place  it  in  a  safe.  During  this  time  Bishop 
was  at  some  distance  away  heavily  blindfolded. 
When  all  was  ready,  he  would  take  this  man's 
hand  and  after  a  short  interval  give  the  num- 
ber on  the  bank-note,  which  was  invariably 
found  to  be  correct.  I  questioned  him  very 
closely  on  this  performance,  which  I  witnessed 
frequently.  He  said  as  soon  as  he  placed  his 
fingers  on  the  wrist  of  the  man  who  placed  the 
note,  the  number  would  come  to  him  without 
difficulty.  He  claimed  that  it  was  telepathy  or 
clairvoyance.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  it  was  sim- 
ply attunement  to  the  mind  of  the  man  who 
knew  the  number,  and,  as  in  the  action  of  the 
wireless  telegraph,  the  two  brains  being  simi- 
larly attuned,  the  message  was  sent  and  re- 
ceived. There  are  many  today  to  whom  this 
would  be  a  mere  kindergarten  performance. 
You  perhaps  did  not  know  that  every  time  you 
shake  hands  you  run  the  risk  of  giving  away 
your  inmost  secrets.  I  am  prepared  to  tell 
you  that  this  is  true.  "There  is  nothing  hid- 
den but  it  shall  be  revealed,  and  there  is  noth- 
ing secret  but  it  shall  be  made  known." 
We  receive  impressions  of  impending  dis- 


62  THE  SECRET  OF  LIFE, 

aster  which  we  regard  as  "supernatural."  Once 
for  all  let  me  say  there  is  nothing  supernatural. 
A  knowledge  of  this  fact  ought  to  cure  you  of 
your  superstitions  and  destroy  your  fears. 
Light,  sound,  color,  travel  faster  than  letters 
cr  telegrams.  The  impending  disaster  vibra- 
tions often  reach  us  long  before  the  actual 
occurrence  itself.  Even  as  we  see  the  flash  of 
lightening,  or  the  flash  of  the  powder,  before 
we  hear  the  thunder  or  the  report  of  the 
cannon. 

All  these  things  are  but  movements  of  the 
electrons  of  the  universe,  carrying  out  the  nat- 
ural lav/  of  their  being,  which  is  electrical 
impulse. 

Prof.  Dolbear  says,  "Molecules  which  are  a 
combination  of  atoms,  are  known  to  have  their 
constant  state  of  vibrations  and  from  this  and 
the  fact  of  their  perfect  transparency,  they  can 
no  more  be  seen  than  the  air.  They  are  so 
minute,  so  restless,  like  atoms  of  hydrogen, 
that  no  one  can  hope  to  see  them  or  learn 
their  characteristic  properties." 

Observation  and  study  of  the  phenomena  of 
electrical  energy  reveal  to  us  the  nature  of 
that  substance,  which  we  are,  and  with  which 
we  have  to  do.  The  fundamental,  inevitable, 
never-varying  law  of  polarity — pushing  and 
pulling — or  positive  and  negative  action.  In 
creation,  throughout  all  experience,  this  Is 
seen.  Land  and  sea,  day  and  night,  right  and 


DEATH  AND  IMMORTALITY  63 

left,  up  and  down,  sweet  and  sour,  east  and 
west,  north  and  south,  good  and  bad,  right  and 
wrong,  man  and  woman,  attraction  and  repul- 
sion—the so-called  "pairs  of  opposites," — Sex 
everywhere.  Is  it  difficult  to  see  by  analogy 
and  deduction  that  polarity  is  universal.  That 
all  phenomena  are  electrical  phenomena.  That 
birth,  and  growth,  disease  and  disaster,  de- 
cline and  death  are  all  electrical  phenomena, 
and  that  there  is  but  one  synthetic  substance — 
ELECTRICITY. 

*     The  germ,  the  embryo,  the  child, 

The  foolish  boy,  the  man, 
Are  onward  steps  from  nothingness 
In  God's  progressive  plan. 

Forever  onward  is  the  march — 

From  beastly  hoof  to  hand — 
From  savage  to  the  seer  and  sage — 

From  Saurian  types  to  man; 
From  man  to  angel — limitless 

As  are  the  starry  spheres, 
Progression  hath  not  halt  nor  bound 

In  God's  eternal  years! 

From  darkest  cloud  the  lightning  flash — 

From  nothing — life  Divine, 
From  gloom  to  glory  is  the  law 

The  unvarying  design. 
A  world  of  good  invites  our  eyes 


64  THE  SECRET  OF  LIFE, 

And  charms  the  willing  mind — 
But  he  who  only  misery  finds 

Blasphemes  the  life  Divine. 
****** 

The  mountain  side — the  billowy  sea 

Of  waving  prairie  flowers, 
The  gardens,  glades,  and  spicy  groves 

Around  this  world  of  ours 
Proclaim  the  endless  festival 

Of  beauty, — and  the  truth — 
The  deathless  power  of  Love  Divine 

Eternal  in  its  youth. 


*Arena. 


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